CES 2014: NYKO

Our first appointment of 2014 International CES was our annual visit with the folks at NYKO. We stopped by their suite to get a hands on with the items that they had introduced at E3 earlier in the year, as well as getting our first look at the new lineup that was introduced out here at the show.

First up was their Qi charger, dubbed the Power Base. This is a bit of a departure for NYKO products, as they has mostly stayed in the Gaming Accessory realm when it comes to power and charging accessories. However, this unit is designed to take Qi enabled devices (such as the Galaxy 4 and Nexus 5) and allow them to easily slip into a base and charge while it sits by your bedside or on your office desk. It has a nice look and is very sleek and stylish, wherever you would choose to use it. Although it will still charge Qi devices while slightly off the base, it is currently not compatible with large phones, such as the Galaxy Note 2. However, for those devices that do not have the Qi card, there is one included in the pack, so you can easily add it to the back of your phone under the housing. The Power Base will hit retail later this spring with an MSRP of $39.99.

Next up was the Power Grip for PS Vita 2000 series. Although Sony hadn’t officially announced the PS Vita 200o here in the U.S. as of yesterday’s appointment, it has been released in Japan and will make its debut in North American at some point. When it does, NYKO will be ready with an updated version of the Power Grip that will encompass the lighter and slimmer form-factor. As for the Power Grip itself, it provides a secondary battery source that promises to bring up to 2x the battery life of the PS P Vita. It was also redesigned a bit from the original PSP Power Grip to provide a better position for the Vita 2000 in order to give a more console controller like feel and to take better advantage of the second screen capabilities that the Vita will offer. While a release date wasn’t provided, it will be available with an MSRP of $19.99 when it comes to retail.Unfortunately, one of the announced products at CES (the Intercooler for the PlayStation 4) was not available to view other than the renderings that accompanies yesterday’s announcement. When it becomes available, it will work similar to previous intercoolers, with multiple fans helping draw air out through the PlayStation 4 to assist with cooling. It will also feature the pass-through plug design. It should be available for retail in the spring with an MSRP if $24.99.

The other big PlayStation 4 announcement was the PowerPak, which is designed to fit right in the battery compartment of the Dual-Shock 4 controller. It is touted as providing up to 2x the battery life, and will charge directly into the PowerPak via the micro-USB cable. The controller we handled felt very natural, with the Pak not interfering or causing the DualShock 4 to feel off balance. One huge innovation from NYKO is that the PowerPak and the ChargeBase despite having different designs, will both be able to be recharged in the ChargeBase due to the addition of a moveable charging pins. The PowerPak will be available later this spring for $19.99

NYKO also had on display their full lineup of Wii U accessories first introduced at E3, as well as some of the Xbox One items and Nvidia Shield Dock and Shell Case that were previously announced.